Sunday, March 21, 2010

dick head≈ bush face

The reading about "Poor Richard" by Phillip Guston talks about a series of caricatures he did depicting Richard Nixon as a "dick head" or "dick face". This is largely making fun of Nixon's abnormally large nose, but also on the account of his incompetence, hypocritical nature and how he "unwittingly set himself up for mimicry and caricature". He was indicted for the scandal of Watergate that he was apart of. There are many idiotic things that he said, such as; "The only place where you and I disagree … is with regard to the bombing. You're so goddamned concerned about civilians and I don't give a damn. I don't care." He was completely reckless, just like the today's equivalent; George W. Bush. George Bush is a part of a potential scandal of lying to Americans about the real reason for the war in Iraq, and it is becoming clearer and clearer that this is true. He is very easily caricatured and so easy to make fun of. He says so many stupid things. Nixon's said things that are way more toothless than what Bush has said, but they are both equally incompetent. Bush and Nixon both claimed that a President may violate Congress' laws to protect national security and they both wiretapped illegally. The comparison of Bush and Nixon is a rather common one too. Th cartoonist Mike Luckovich does many depictions of Bush usually showing him as a small, insignificant looking creature. His reasons and interest in making fun of Bush is similar to Guston’s enjoyment of making fun of Nixon. Guston speaks of the "discust" he has for Nixon although he combats it with humor. It is the same with Bush. There are so many cartoons just making fun of how stupid he is and how incapable he was as president, but it really is all out of discust. It is easier to deal with the ugliness by belittling the person rather than getting angry I think. It seems like a laugh, but it's really a cry.